The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1887-05-26

mountainsl No one told me; no one ever
ventured to mention his name TO- me. But
somehow placed him there in the long dim
room, and there my fancy kept following
him and lowering about him. Now he sat
by the freside there, in the deep chair,
reading; now he was busy with maps and
pictures at the table; now, in the big bay,
the moonlight, that had pale green refec-
tions in it cast up from the emerald depths
of the woods below, fell about him. dare
say that, in reality, busy about the place
and his affairs of one sort or ancther, and
doing his best to live and to forget, he was
very little in that room; but there l chose
to place him; and it grew strangely sweet
to me, and every moment when could sit
down alone my fancy took me and sat
down in that room, or else wandered up
and down the great staircase and the hall
where his peoples portraits hung; bCs
always came back again to the hearth OF the
long dim room if it were day, to the
dancing fire-cast shadows there If it
were night, and the place grew dearer
and dearer to me every hour, and
I upbraided myself in thoughts too
bitter for speech for the folly and angry
temper that had shut me out of it, that had
drawn comparison between that ancient
lofty place and this low and tiresome stretch
of nothing but common grass lands, between
that manor and this plain farmhouse, al
though in real truth my farmhouse was
quite its equal at any other time. But the
new year came in withouta sign from Mark
or sign from me; and the country was
white with snow, and the river ice was
strong enough to bear up sledges and teams
of horses, and the ice-boats went splitting
the wind before them. 1t all made no odds
to me. was completely wretched. didn't
pretend to 60 to church or to any Of the So
ciety meetings; and if the Sawyers and
Wellses came to me suppose treated them
properly-rm sure don't know-but nev-
er set my foot out doors the winter long. 2
There were furious storms that winter.
The snow fell as never remembered it be-
fore. The drifts seemed to wall US in from
all the world. ga living tomb" used to
murmur. 81 wish it were tomb indeed,
and in my last Sleep At twenty one can
be so very miserable; and at thirty, il one
lives so long, one can be SO profane as to
laugh at it.
Sometimes Bryan and Thomas brought
word of the outside regions, Of the way peo-
pie up-river were sleigh-riding over the
tops of fences, of the immense snowfall in
the mountains, and the fears of what would
happen from it in the spring if there should
be an early thaw. And remembered some
words that Mark used to quote from play
he had seen. ''When this snow melteth
there shall come afiood." did Mt care how
many floods came.
And so, with storm after storm, the
winter wore away, Jane and Maria at their
home keeping tasks, and l busy with my
rug g-making, hooking strips of woolen cloth
through coffee bags, not because the house
was not full of them, but because L had
nothing better to do. For couldn't read !;
if tried, my eyes swan and l could not
make out word of what 1t was all about.
And people went and came like shadows;
and the days had grown short, and now
they grew long, and what did 1t all matter
to me!
March had come, but without sign OF
the winters breaking; and then at last
April loitered on, and April suns began to
do their work; and gradually the drifts OF
snow in the lanes and in the fields began to
settle and to lessen and melt and disappear.
And Bryan and Thomas had to talk OF the
brooding hens, and watch for the breaking
up of the river, and discuss the chance OF
the early rye and the new calves and the
hiring of the spring hands; and it was all
emptiness And one day it began to snow,
and the snow turned to rain, and 1T rained
that day and rained in rivers, and it rained
the next day, and it rained till it had rained
a week-a long, dreary week that bade fair
to end only in deluge. And on Saturday
the sun came out warm; and when looked,
the crocuses bloomed under the windows,
and Thomas said it was very like the May
flowers were opening in the woods, if any
body could get to them for the roads all
being under water, although the river was
still locked in solid ice from shore to shore.
And in the late afternoon of the second
day of this same sweet sunshine and south
wind, as we sat there, Jane and ], Maria
ran in and said there was water in the Gel
lar, as much as six inches.
''That is nothing" said l. II should think
there would be, after such a melting of
snow and such raining of torrents"
''It's more likely it's the land sucking up
the river, MISS" said Maria. ''The rivers
Just raging full under it's ice coat, 1
shouldn't wonder, and is letting itself out
through the land" And as she spoke
there came great shock and thrill, rum
BILE, roar, and a mighty burst Of sound.
''Great mercy, missw cried Jane, tits
the ice cracking and rending from shore to
shore l never heard the like before, many
springs as I've lived beside it," and before
she had done speaking the sound came
again-the sound of great guns, the tremb-
ling of an earthquake.
'sIt is an earthquake" said 1. at must
be. But earthquakes up here don't amount
to any thing"
I, o1y
then we sat there an hour or more, looking
out on the river, and listening to the sounds,
and wondering, and telling stories of earth
quakes and hardships and what not, curd-
ling our blood as we talked. And at last
Thomas came in; he had been down the
lane to the highway, and person who had
come from up-country had told him that the
freshet was on the river, and the high water
miles above US.
sBut how can it do that?" said l. "How
can there be freshet where it's all icel''
aJust because it is all ice, MISS" said
Thomas. 1.-The streams are full up-country,
and the frozen river down here is giving
the water no outlet. Half the country be-
tween here and there'll be a1oat before
morning. And then came the dull roar
and rumble, the shock, the thrill, the ex-
plosion, once more.
''Why, this is terrible" saidI. 'It seems
as if elemental things were at work; as if
the earth was splitting and opening" And
while we waited and shivered, as one after
another of the great explosions came, the
door opened so quickly as to make US start,
and Mrs. Sawyer ran in, her face as white
as ashes.
"a messenger has just gone galloping by"
she gasped. "My husband met him. He
says the dam at the falls has been carried
away, and the mayor Of Fallstown has sent